Parents, students and educators, promised an antidote to the mania of college admissions, alike gathered in the Alan Harvey Theater for the final installment of the Education Speaker Series on March 22.
New York Times columnist and author Frank Bruni discussed the college admissions process, specifically challenging the idea that admission to an elite college is a requirement for a better career and future success, the theme of his book “Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be.”
Bruni did not correlate success with the university a person attended and proved his point with both personal anecdotes and data.
He began by explaining how he got involved in the study of college admissions from when he guest taught a seminar at Princeton University. As seminars at Princeton University are limited to 16 students, 48 students wished to take and then applied for his class. Half way through the course he realized that the students’ in-class writing was consistently lower quality than of their applications to the class, Bruni said. This was one of the experiences that prompted him to take a closer look at college admissions.
Bruni described more situations to disprove the “myth of college admissions” that included statistics about Rhodes scholars and the benefits of many state or lesser known schools.
“It was really refreshing to hear and was a good timing to go as a senior,” senior Sarah Chin said.
Wildwood principal Carol Cramer agreed that the event was a good reminder to help students of any age become aware that there are many successful options open to them after their high school education. While Cramer particularly enjoyed this segment of the speaker series, she had enjoyed the others that she has been to.
“I subscribe to the speaker series because I enjoy the opportunity to hear the presentations on so many diverse topics that impact raising healthy children,” Cramer said.